ISLAMABAD: A prominent Pakistani journalist who was banned and taken off air by his TV station after he criticized the country’s military last month at a protest against growing attacks on journalists has offered an apology, saying he had no intention to defame the army.
Hamid Mir took to Twitter on Wednesday, saying he apologized over his remarks before a journalists’ local union that defended him since Geo News TV removed him in May as the host of his talk show “Capital Talk.”
He said he tendered no such apology to his employer as he did not use Geo News TV’s platform when he made a fiery speech at a rally in May to express solidarity with journalist Asad Ali Toor and others who were attacked or harassed.
Pakistani authorities insist they support freedom of speech and Mir’s removal as the host was the TV channel’s internal affair.
Banned Pakistani TV host apologizes over speech against army
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Banned Pakistani TV host apologizes over speech against army
- Hamid Mir taken off air by his TV station Geo news after he criticized the military last month at a protest
- Hamid says has apologized over his remarks before journalists’ union that defended him and not to Geo News
Rating firm S&P says it won’t rush Iran war downgrades, sees risks for countries like Pakistan
- Agency says it is monitoring indebted energy importers as higher oil prices strain finances
- Gulf economies seen better placed to weather shock, though Bahrain flagged as vulnerable
LONDON: S&P Global said it would not make any knee-jerk sovereign rating cuts following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but warned on Thursday that soaring oil and gas prices were putting a number of already cash-strapped countries at risk.
The firm’s top analysts said in a webinar that the conflict, which has involved US and Israeli strikes against Iran and Iranian strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, was now moving from a low- to moderate-risk scenario.
Most Gulf countries had enough fiscal buffers, however, to weather the crisis for a while, with more lowly rated Bahrain the only clear exception.
Qatar’s banking sector could also struggle if there were significant deposit outflows in reaction to the conflict, although there was no evidence of such strains at the moment, they said.
“We don’t want to jump the gun and just say things are bad,” S&P’s head global sovereign analyst, Roberto Sifon-Arevalo, said.
The longer the crisis was prolonged, though, “the more difficult it is going to be,” he added.
Sifon-Arevalo said Asia was the second-most exposed region, due to many of its countries being significant Gulf oil and gas importers.
India, Thailand and Indonesia have relatively lower reserves of oil, while the region also had already heavily indebted countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka whose finances would be further hurt by rising energy prices.
“We are closely monitoring these (countries) to see how the credit stories evolve,” Sifon-Arevalo said.
